Eating Christmas In The Kalahari

Eating Christmas in the Kalahari is an effective piece of literature which shows that a culture might understand a holiday or another's cultures traditions in a sense but they might practice it in another way and might find something offensive which wouldn't be in another culture. Richard Lee went to Southwest Africa to the !Kung expecting for the people to be happy and grateful that he brought the fattest oxen but the oxen were no more generous than the expression of his gratitude for the assistance and hospitality.

Richard Lee set off in his last year in South Africa to buy the biggest ox for the Christmas dinner. However, after deciding on oxen, thinking it was the biggest and would provide the most meat. Unfortunately, the !Kung didn't

agree, he began to get many nerves people asking him "How would that old Ox feed everyone". What Lee didn't understand was that the !Kung actually did like the animal but still criticized it because as Lee was explained later by Hakekgosc when he said "No, it is their custom; they talk that way to each other too. Go and ask them.". Lee was confused about what Hakekgosc and why they would criticize his selection and keep taunting him even though the oxen was large enough and had a lot of fat on it.
The !Kung's Christmas was celebrated differently than most of other cultures. The !Kung saw Christmas as a celebration of a "praise the birth of white man's god-chief", the !Kung basically stripped down the reason of Christmas to its bare minimum which the !Kung understood. The Bushman groups gathered together for Christmas and celebrated by having a huge potlatch and one group brings the oxen to be served for everyone. After the dinner, they have a huge dance and they believe if they eat a fatty meal they will dance more and be happy. The !Kung suggested to /ontah (Richard's Bushman name; it means,
roughly, "whitey") that the oxen had a little fat on it so they wouldn' eat well and they would all go home and sleep instead of dance. I especially liked that the native people lead Richard to believe that the animal he picked was going to ruin their tradition, and cause much outrage among the other bushman, and didn't even tell me till they began to cut into the oxen, when he realized that the oxen did have a lot of fat.
I believe this is an effective piece of literature to show that even though a culture might understand or perceive your culture traditions, they might interpret them in different ways.

In the !Kung culture in the horns are big on an oxen they will say that "Did you think that somehow you were going to boil down the horns for soup?" and to respond respectful you just say "I agree,'this one is not worth the effort; let's just cook the liver for strength and leave the rest for the hyenas. It is not too late to hunt today and even a duiker or a steenbok would be better than this mess.", I believe this is very interesting because in our society, just like Richard did, people would instantly begin to argue back and try to persuade the person or group to their side. Richard questioned why would you insult a man and his hunt even though he is going to share it and response from the elder was arrogance because when a young man returns with a large hunt or kill, they then believe they are the big man or chief. I believe this is actually extremely smart because once a kid or young man gets a job or begins supporting themselves, they start to forget about everyone who helped get you there. Richard finally asked why Tomazo didn't tell him this was the custom and Tomazo responded "Because you never asked me". I like this part because many people don't ask and will just try when they are given a task, and they could have asked for advice or

help.